In aircraft and other vehicle applications, electronics are often configured as “boxes” or line replaceable units (LRUs) that may be quickly and easily removed and re-installed to facilitate rapid swapping of malfunctioning LRUs with operational LRUs. Although LRUs can be mounted in a variety of ways, one commonly used method is to mount the LRU in a mounting tray within the vehicle and electrically connect it to the vehicle by engaging a connector on the rear side of the LRU with a tray connector on the mounting tray. The rear side of the tray connector is connected to a number of cables that are routed away from the tray to the applicable vehicle system.
Each cable typically includes numerous wires that are connected to the tray connector and at least one electrically conductive shield or braid that offers protection from electromagnetic emissions, electromagnetic susceptibility, and electromagnetic crosstalk between wires of one or more cables. The shields must be properly terminated at the tray connector. The signal wire connections and the shield terminations are covered by backshells, which are covers that are mounted to the rear of the tray connectors to provide protection from physical contact, to provide protection from electromagnetic interference (EMI) from outside sources, and to prevent electromagnetic emissions from the cable wires. Electrically conductive cable overbraid shields are terminated to the backshells to protect from EMI and prevent electromagnetic emissions throughout the entire cable.
Space constraints within an aircraft or other vehicle are often significant. As a result, the clearance between a mounting tray and an adjacent cabinet wall may be minimal. To facilitate sliding the LRUs in and out of a vehicle cabinet during removal and installation, the tray connectors and corresponding backshells are typically configured parallel with a rear cabinet wall so that the connectors on the rear of the LRUs may easily engage the tray connectors at the rear of the cabinet. As a result, the cables connected to the rear sides of the tray connectors must traverse the cabinet space between the mounting trays and the adjacent cabinet wall parallel to the cabinet wall and then turn 90 degrees to enter the backshell of the tray connector. The depth of a typical tray connector backshell along with the depth of the required bend radius of a cable to make the 90-degree turn into the backshell while maintaining minimum cable bend radius requirements often consumes the space between the mounting tray and the rear cabinet wall, limiting the clearance for technicians performing installation or maintenance of components within this space.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.